Thursday, December 10, 2009

Why Are Americans Religious?

One of the major questions in 21st century sociology is why are Americans so much more religious than citizens in other industrialized nations. The answer, if there is one, will help us understand why evolution is rejected by so many Americans.

Gregory S. Paul is a writer who has long been interested in this question. His latest contribution is published in the journal Evolutionary Psychology (Paul, 2009).

Paul examined the correlation between religiosity and the Successful Societies Scale (SSS). SSS measures things like crime rates, divorces, mortality rates etc. The United States (U) seems like an outlier compared to other countries.

Does belief in God cause a society to be dysfunctional or are less successful countries more likely to encourage religiosity? Or is there no obvious cause and effect behind this correlation?

You'll have to read the paper to see how Gregory Paul address these questions and how he rules out many possible explanations. I find his conclusion quite intriguing—I never thought of it this way.

Among the prosperous democracies all but the U.S. have adopted most or all of a set of pragmatic progressive governmental policies that have elevated these nation’s societal efficiency, success and security while reducing personal levels of stress and anxiety. These include reduced socioeconomic disparity and competition via targeted tax and welfare strategies, handgun control, anti-corporal punishment and anti-bullying policies, protection for women in abusive relationships, intensive sex education that emphasizes condom use, rehabilitative incarceration, increased leisure time that can be dedicated to family needs, and perhaps most importantly job security and universal health care that make it difficult for ordinary citizens to suffer catastrophic financial failure. Social ills are correspondingly suppressed. As a member of the 1st world the U.S. is an anomalous outlier not only in its religiosity, but in social, economic and political policies as well. Provided with comparatively low levels of government support and protection in favor of less restrained capitalism, members of the middle class are at serious risk of financial and personal ruin if they lose their job or private health insurance; around a million go bankrupt in a year, about half due in part to often overwhelming medical bills. The need to acquire wealth as a protective buffer encourages an intense competitive race to the top, which contributes to income inequality. The latter leaves a large cohort mired in poverty. Levels of societal pathology are correspondingly high. The evidence indicates that the modulation of capitalism via progressive policies is producing superior overall national circumstances compared to the more laissez-faire capitalism favored in the U.S. The relationship of religion to these patterns appears to be both passive and active. Starting with the passive, the middle class majorities of western Europe, Canada, Austro-Zealand and Japan apparently feel sufficiently secure in their lives that increasingly few citizens feel a need to seek the aid and protection of a supernatural creator, resulting in dramatic drops in religious belief and activity (Norris and Inglehart, 2004; Paul and Zuckerman, 2007; Zuckerman, 2008). With the implosion of the general religious belief, few subscribe to a fundamentalist world-view that provides the base for creationist opinion,. That there are no major 1st world exceptions to this pattern, and that a significant religious revival has yet to occur in a secular democracy, indicate that the socioeconomic security process of democratic secularization is highly effective even though it is an accidental side effect of progressive economic policies. The universality of the effect is further supported by Asian Japan experiencing the same basic secularization process as the EuroChristian heritage secular democracies. America’s high-risk circumstances, the strong variation in economic circumstances, and chronic competitiveness help elevate rates of social pathology, and strongly contribute to high levels of personal stress and anxiety. The majority of Americans are left feeling sufficiently insecure that they perceive a need to seek the aid and protection of a supernatural creator, boosting levels of religious opinion and participation. The nation’s good ratings in life satisfaction and happiness is compatible with a large segment of the population using religion to psychologically compensate for high levels of apprehension; America’s apparently high level mental illness (Bijl, 2003) may be in accord with this suggestion. The ultimate expression of this social phenomenon is the large minority who adhere to the evangelical Prosperity Christianity and Rapture cultures whose Bible-based world-view favors belief in the Genesis creation story. The results of this study are therefore compatible with and support the socioeconomic security hypothesis of democratic secularization.

Sue Blackmore is intrigued but skeptical [Are we better off without religion?]. She thinks this may be too simplistic and of course she's right. There's no one reason why America is lagging behind other nations in evolving a better society and there's no single explanation for its religiosity.

I'd be curious to see similar data broken down by state (and also where Canada fits in, since of all other countries, we are probably the one most influenced by American culture). It seems to me that the USA is larger and/or more diverse than the other countries in the data set, and it would be interesting to see how much spread there is around that single anomalous data point labelled "U", if the individual states were broken out.

I didn't look through the whole paper but did they look at levels of separation of church and state?

One hypothesis I've heard is that many other Western Democracies have state religions (even Canada has the Catholic school system), and just like normal economics the monopoly of a state religion means it's less competitive.

Thus the success of religion in the states is due to the fact that the churches competing for parishioners have created a much healthier market for religion.

alucho:Thus the success of religion in the states is due to the fact that the churches competing for parishioners have created a much healthier market for religion.

'. . . a much MORE CALLOUS market for religion.' strikes me as more accurate. There is NOTHING healthy about US religiousness, very much to the contrary, and maybe a prime reason why the US American are so godamn self-righteous. We just had one of them over here in Norway, and he is one of the better (as in 'less horrible').

Larry, I don't have time digging numbers on the Internet today at all (but almost all of the relevant statistics is freely accessible) so only few numbers by memory:

Because Blacks in the USA commit homicide at a rate something like 7X higher of Whites and among young Black males in Minnesota, the rate of gonorrhea is around 150X higher than in comparable White group. When differences are counted in many folds, it makes a big difference overall.

In contrast, Canada and Australia's largest non-White population is Asians - who, according to statistics, commit violent crimes at a rate lower than Whites.

Don't get me wrong - I do believe that there is a very weak correlation between how smart and how religious a person is. And smart people tend to build more prosperous societies. But claiming r~0.5 it is absurd, total absurd! (Plus, it all depends very strongly on definition and evaluation of "religiousity").

Very interesting post!!"All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish. I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details...."It's my pleasure to read your blog

aluchko said...I didn't look through the whole paper but did they look at levels of separation of church and state?

One hypothesis I've heard is that many other Western Democracies have state religions (even Canada has the Catholic school system), and just like normal economics the monopoly of a state religion means it's less competitive.

Thus the success of religion in the states is due to the fact that the churches competing for parishioners have created a much healthier market for religion.===============================

I find this unconvincing. As I said in my previous append, Canada does not have a Catholic school system, or anything approaching a state religion.

In fact, I would suggest that in practical terms, the US is very much closer to having a "state religion" than is Canada, and closer than some countries which do formally have a state religion, such as the United Kingdom.

Look at the near-absolute requirement for candidates in the US to profess religious belief, often in terms that seem fervent and overblown to at least some of us outside the US. Small example - could the President or other visible political figure get away with a high-profile speech which did not end with "God bless America" or a similar sentiment?

New zealand is the most peacful country in the world and maybe in the universe.Just read this about putting atheist adverts on busses and the comments after the article. http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/donations-pour-in-atheist-campaign-3284878

It’s really not a good idea to try and tie evolutionary psychology (“Erbpsychologie”) to behaviors of others that can be seen in a negative light. Someone might take your “science” seriously, and suggest that changes should be made (all in the name of “national efficiency” of course).

It probably has something to do with the frontier and the shortage of trained ministers, such that both parsons and parishioners were accustomed to taking the Bible more seriously than its authors intended. The eradication of the original inhabitants and the presence of a considerable population imported from yet another continent under conditions of extreme privation are most likely not irrelevant.

Having a permanent black underclass undermines social solidarity. Nearly any reform is unacceptable because it might benefit someone undeserving, one of "them".

the assessment on the linked page could not agree more with my own opinions. I have lived in UK, Africa and various parts of the USA and now live in the USA and i feel that the religious/conservative vs liberal/less religious/agnostic spins on social issues has polarized this country into its opposed left/right wings and we have ended up with a dysfunctional schizophrenic government. even with a democratic president and a democratic majority in congress, the government is still completely dysfunctional. witness the recent 780 page reading of an amendment in the senate used purely as a filibuster time wasting tactic. this is so absurd and childish that the American people should fire the LOT of them for gross negligence, and do away with the two party system completely. America once decided to put a man on the moon, and did it in less time than was anticipated because we were as a people UNITED against a perceived common foe. now we are two camps united against each other, and the world outside our borders is passing us by.

>Does belief in God cause a society to be dysfunctional or are less successful countries more likely to encourage religiosity?

Here is a data point from an news article: "She has learned to live without the prescription medications she is supposed to take for high blood pressure and cholesterol. She has become effusively religious -- an unexpected turn for this onetime standup comic with X-rated material -- finding in Christianity her only form of health insurance."

>Does belief in God cause a society to be dysfunctional or are less successful countries more likely to encourage religiosity?

Here is a data point from an news article: "She has learned to live without the prescription medications she is supposed to take for high blood pressure and cholesterol. She has become effusively religious -- an unexpected turn for this onetime standup comic with X-rated material -- finding in Christianity her only form of health insurance."

I'm sorry to say this, but African Americans are at every level of American society. YOu say this as if a large majority of blacks are just poor. Let me remind you there are still more poor whites than any other race in the US. How you ask? Simple. They're the majority... I mean my God your president is black. Fuck you. I'm trying to become a diplomat. I have relatives that are doctors and lawyers. MY sister is an accountant. My mom is an IT specialist. MY father is an exec. Fuck you. a permanment black underclass. My ass. My God only whites can be ignorant and poor without them as a whole being judged. remember that's white privilege.

I'm very interested in your ideas on this and this is the first time I have seen America's religiosity explained in this way. Fascinating.

I think there's a little more to it than this. I think that because of hypercompetitive, laissez-faire capitalism, Americans aren't just drawn to religion for its positive aspects. Unrestrained laissez-faire capitalism forces Americans to make many small moral and ethical compromises in their daily lives, in order to surivive economically. This gives may people the underlying sensation that they're "bad people". Americans may be drawn to religion in order to mitigate the resulting "cognitive dissonance". In my experience in other countries (Italy, Germany, France, Switzerland, Denmark, etc.) there isn't this vague sensation that you have to make constant moral compromises just to survive, and so there may be much less cognitive dissonance for most people, causing religion to exert less of a magnetic force.

Laurence A. Moran

Larry Moran is a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Toronto. You can contact him by looking up his email address on the University of Toronto website.

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The Sandwalk is the path behind the home of Charles Darwin where he used to walk every day, thinking about science. You can see the path in the woods in the upper left-hand corner of this image.

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Quotations

The old argument of design in nature, as given by Paley, which formerly seemed to me to be so conclusive, fails, now that the law of natural selection has been discovered. We can no longer argue that, for instance, the beautiful hinge of a bivalve shell must have been made by an intelligent being, like the hinge of a door by man. There seems to be no more design in the variability of organic beings and in the action of natural selection, than in the course which the wind blows.Charles Darwin (c1880)Although I am fully convinced of the truth of the views given in this volume, I by no means expect to convince experienced naturalists whose minds are stocked with a multitude of facts all viewed, during a long course of years, from a point of view directly opposite to mine. It is so easy to hide our ignorance under such expressions as "plan of creation," "unity of design," etc., and to think that we give an explanation when we only restate a fact. Any one whose disposition leads him to attach more weight to unexplained difficulties than to the explanation of a certain number of facts will certainly reject the theory.

Charles Darwin (1859)Science reveals where religion conceals. Where religion purports to explain, it actually resorts to tautology. To assert that "God did it" is no more than an admission of ignorance dressed deceitfully as an explanation...

Quotations

The world is not inhabited exclusively by fools, and when a subject arouses intense interest, as this one has, something other than semantics is usually at stake.
Stephen Jay Gould (1982)
I have championed contingency, and will continue to do so, because its large realm and legitimate claims have been so poorly attended by evolutionary scientists who cannot discern the beat of this different drummer while their brains and ears remain tuned to only the sounds of general theory.
Stephen Jay Gould (2002) p.1339
The essence of Darwinism lies in its claim that natural selection creates the fit. Variation is ubiquitous and random in direction. It supplies raw material only. Natural selection directs the course of evolutionary change.
Stephen Jay Gould (1977)
Rudyard Kipling asked how the leopard got its spots, the rhino its wrinkled skin. He called his answers "just-so stories." When evolutionists try to explain form and behavior, they also tell just-so stories—and the agent is natural selection. Virtuosity in invention replaces testability as the criterion for acceptance.
Stephen Jay Gould (1980)
Since 'change of gene frequencies in populations' is the 'official' definition of evolution, randomness has transgressed Darwin's border and asserted itself as an agent of evolutionary change.
Stephen Jay Gould (1983) p.335
The first commandment for all versions of NOMA might be summarized by stating: "Thou shalt not mix the magisteria by claiming that God directly ordains important events in the history of nature by special interference knowable only through revelation and not accessible to science." In common parlance, we refer to such special interference as "miracle"—operationally defined as a unique and temporary suspension of natural law to reorder the facts of nature by divine fiat.
Stephen Jay Gould (1999) p.84

Quotations

My own view is that conclusions about the evolution of human behavior should be based on research at least as rigorous as that used in studying nonhuman animals. And if you read the animal behavior journals, you'll see that this requirement sets the bar pretty high, so that many assertions about evolutionary psychology sink without a trace.

Jerry Coyne
Why Evolution Is TrueI once made the remark that two things disappeared in 1990: one was communism, the other was biochemistry and that only one of them should be allowed to come back.

Sydney Brenner
TIBS Dec. 2000
It is naïve to think that if a species' environment changes the species must adapt or else become extinct.... Just as a changed environment need not set in motion selection for new adaptations, new adaptations may evolve in an unchanging environment if new mutations arise that are superior to any pre-existing variations

Douglas Futuyma
One of the most frightening things in the Western world, and in this country in particular, is the number of people who believe in things that are scientifically false. If someone tells me that the earth is less than 10,000 years old, in my opinion he should see a psychiatrist.

Francis Crick
There will be no difficulty in computers being adapted to biology. There will be luddites. But they will be buried.

Sydney Brenner
An atheist before Darwin could have said, following Hume: 'I have no explanation for complex biological design. All I know is that God isn't a good explanation, so we must wait and hope that somebody comes up with a better one.' I can't help feeling that such a position, though logically sound, would have left one feeling pretty unsatisfied, and that although atheism might have been logically tenable before Darwin, Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist

Richard Dawkins
Another curious aspect of the theory of evolution is that everybody thinks he understand it. I mean philosophers, social scientists, and so on. While in fact very few people understand it, actually as it stands, even as it stood when Darwin expressed it, and even less as we now may be able to understand it in biology.

Jacques Monod
The false view of evolution as a process of global optimizing has been applied literally by engineers who, taken in by a mistaken metaphor, have attempted to find globally optimal solutions to design problems by writing programs that model evolution by natural selection.